Bakari Sellers Urges Biden to ‘Expend Every Ounce of Capital’ to Pass Gun Safety Legislation ‘So We Don’t Have Another Week’ Like This
CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers urged President Joe Biden to use all his political leverage to push gun control legislation through the Senate, in the wake of the second mass shooting in a less than a week.
Speaking with host Anderson Cooper and co-panelist ex-GOP Rep. Charlie Dent on Tuesday night, Sellers called out the White House, saying it can’t let the gun policy agenda be set by moderate Democrats resistant to reforming the filibuster. Universal gun background checks and closing the gun show or “Charleston” loophole perennially enjoys overwhelming public support as does nationwide “red flag” laws and requiring a gun license before any purchase.
“Bakari, the administration’s hurdle isn’t just dealing with Republicans,” Cooper pointed out. “You have Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, was vocal about his opposition to the two bills the House passed around gun control.”
“Yeah, and you have this archaic filibuster. We can’t get out of our own way,” Sellers complained. “You have a Democrat and Republican sitting here on cable news in the middle of the night, and we agree that you have to close the Charleston loophole. You’ve got to have a universal background check. We did not vote for a new agenda on November 3rd to sit here and have an agenda that’s palatable only to Kristen Sinema and Joe Manchin. There comes a point when you have to set politics aside and you have to do what’s right for the needs of this country.”
For his part, Dent agreed that some Republicans previously supported gun control — but his personal example of passing a background check law under a GOP governor in Pennsylvania took place 26 years ago.
“What changed was the politics on the outside where they’re fighting with each other about members,” Dent said of gun lobbying groups like the NRA. “And compromise is seen as capitulation, therefore loss of members and money.”
“How much political capital, then, Bakari, should the Biden administration spend on this?” Cooper pressed. “Particularly, you have enthusiasm in terms of the NRA crowd on that issue. Is this so much a voting issue for people on the left?”
“It’s an issue of what’s right,” Sellers insisted. “Expend every ounce of capital you have so we don’t have another week that goes by where we’re writing off a list of name of individuals who have been murdered in spas or at grocery stores, et cetera. So use every ounce of capital you have.”
Sellers then recounted how former President Donald Trump famously pledged and then flip-flopped on taking action against gun violence in the wake of the 2018 Parkland shooting, which resulted in being slammed as a “professional liar” and “failing miserably” heading into that year’s elections.
“Going up into 2018 he said he was going to do this. The [GOP] was on board in doing this,” Sellers pointed out. “He did not, and they paid a price in the 2018 midterms. So I think it’s politically the right move.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
